Multicultural Questions / Family Matters in Contemporary Fiction: Gender, Generation and Ethics in Canadian and British Writing by Women - Softcover

Roupakia, Lydia Efthymia

Softcover

ISBN 10: 365927223X ISBN 13: 9783659272233

Publisher: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing, 2014

Synopsis

This book effects a radical re-adjustment in the interpretation of a representative selection of ethnic minority women novelists from Canada and Britain. The argument put forward constitutes a significant critique of an extensive mode of criticism in the academy, and of reception in the public sphere at large, that reads contemporary fiction by writers of immigrant or ethnic background primarily through the prism of politically motivated discourses against forms of silencing, racism and oppression. Without dissenting from this general account, the author argues that readings focused in this way on large historical injustices constantly overlook the more subtle interest at the heart of these fictions. Indeed, conventionally political readings not only miss, but run significantly counter to, the moral thrust of the works. Through close reading of the texts the author advances her own interpretation of these literary works as practical contributions to an ethical understanding being developed contemporaneously by philosophical thinkers – contributions that highlight small-scale, familial interactions, and an ethics built on care.

About this title

About the Author

Dr. Lydia Efthymia Roupakia is an adjunct lecturer at the International Hellenic University and a member of the English Department at Anatolia College, Greece. She holds and MPhil and DPhil in English Studies from the University of Oxford, UK. Her research explores new approaches to cultural identity and ethics in contemporary literature.

Edition details

• Publisher: LAP LAMBERT Academic Publishing
• Publication date: 2014
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 365927223X
• ISBN 13: 9783659272233
• Binding: Paperback
• Number of pages: 444